Thank you for your sacrifice.
Yep, I been deployed with CENTCOM multiple times... multiple missions -
In fact I wish I could proclaim the truth about why we were really there, and of what we really ran into. It’s all game changer stuff, and would shock the world.
I guess that is part of the problem, being when the narrative is only lies, and repeated generationally, no one would accept the truth.
Before I was in uniform, I spent most of a decade in primarily Moscow, but have spent significant time all over Eastern Europe, and Central.
Ironic, decades later I was attached to EUCOM, only the last time it was Molesworth jac. (I just gave it away)
Didn’t get into it before, but also in 1993, we met with a handful of WWII Generals in Moscow, who had been all over the Eastern Front.
They were not all Russian, but from various countries taken over due to Roosevelt’s horrific “Great Compromise”.
As well, prefacing they too were not sure how it would have gone, but pretty much stated they all believed they had lost the Eastern Front, they were all going to die, and that they had maybe a couple days left without food (already eating trees and junk), and had even less ammunition - when we broke through, and basically saved them. There was discussion on this point.
You should have heard the stories from the region, including from the Black Sea as we rolled in on the Germans to help the Russians.
It is hard to know to know the truth really, as I know Stalin did indeed purge most officers, beginning toward the end of WWII, and immediately following WWII), but these guys basically stated if we had not stopped in Berlin, and we had pushed through to Moscow, they would have fallen in, and recognized our officers as theirs.
That seems to be some historical confirmation...
Now of course this is being told in 1993, but a few of them spoke of the heinous barbarian, genocidal type activity they had faced before WWII under Stalin, and there was great fear by most in society.
Of course we know this to be true from many sources.
However, they also indicated Berlin was the window, and at that time it would have worked for unprecedented historical reasons, for us to keep going, and we were wrong not to go after Stalin and the Supreme Soviet immediately.
I believe they were right.
That being said, while we had the nuclear and nuclear delivery advantage into the mid 1950’s, there is no question they passed us up, and Moscow came down with an iron fist across the entire Warsaw Pact, to include wiping out religion, total cradle to grave indoctrination of all younger generations, total societal dependency etc...
Even later, during the Korean War, we had the significant superiority in nuclear delivery air power, and after we took back back nearly all of NK in the East, Stalin threatened to nuke our troops. Of course MacArthur let Moscow know we could reach and nuke Moscow without them stopping us...
This is why Truman fired Macarthur.
But by then, there would not have been a capable ground game in Eastern Europe.
So basically, early on yes, we should have gone after the guy who was more brutal than Hitler, when they had been so utterly depleted in manpower, food, tools of war, and brutalized by their own totalitarian mass genocidal thug.
This would have arguably collapsed Mao in China early on as well, as Mao was propped up and supported by Moscow for some time, having been chosen by Lenin (1921-1922) to lead what they hoped would be Communist revolution not only in China, but all of Southeast Asia.
Roosevelt really blew it big time, and hundreds of millions paid the price, from Eastern Europe to East Asia.
This is the bigger story really.
Yah, compromising with evil is evil -
Exactly what is it you think Roosevelt could have done to prevent the Soviets from taking the Baltic countries and east Europe? I really don’t think we could have started another war at that time and done anything, frankly I think the Russian Army would have beaten us in the field. We had no stomach for any more war any more than they did.
Apologize for my grammer and spelling errors.
Was up all night, my eyes aren’t working, and this was sent from my little phone.